With the most recent changes to the landscape, C-USA is considering forming an all-sports conference. The schools to be included are Hawaii, Fresno State, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTEP, Tulsa, Tulane, Rice, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB, Marshall and ECU.

Are you excited, Pirate fans? If you thought there was a western bias to your league before, just wait. Has anyone heard Terry Holland's views on this alignment?

— Posted by Ken D.

He has the one that has been pushing the merger. Terry has been pushing this since 2007. It sounds like they are finally going to do it.

— Posted by tcoutouzis

This may have made some sense in 2007, but I don't see where it has any virtues today except to continue to allow the league championship game that was lost with the defection of three schools. That's not much, in my book. I'm afraid at some point the merger became an end in itself, rather than as a means to some useful end.

With the most recent changes to the landscape, C-USA is considering forming an all-sports conference. The schools to be included are Hawaii, Fresno State, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTEP, Tulsa, Tulane, Rice, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB, Marshall and ECU.

Are you excited, Pirate fans? If you thought there was a western bias to your league before, just wait. Has anyone heard Terry Holland's views on this alignment?

— Posted by Ken D.

He has the one that has been pushing the merger. Terry has been pushing this since 2007. It sounds like they are finally going to do it.

ECU has one big problem - EC_WHO? Their football program has taken a virtual nosedive in the past ten years and until they resurrect it to the level it was in the '90's, it pretty much limits their options. They really have two logical options - improve their program and win more games against BCS opponents or put less emphasis on football and drop back down to Div II and play in the Southern Conference again. The major BCS conferences don't want them - and the other conferences incur some pretty steep travel comittments, without a really significant bowl opportunity/payout at the end of the season to offset expenses. Going independent might help - but unless they get a guaranteed bowl tie-in, they could end up with nothing even after an 8 win season.

If ECU wants to compete on a national level - then they will have to pay for it and win on a national level. About 3 or 4 9-11 win seasons strung together and more importantly a half dozen or so victories against quality BCS schools should dramatically improve their prospects. I think they should schedule more sanely to achieve that and spend more money on better head coaches and assistant coaches who can get it done. ECU was ESPN's darling in the 90's because they did this - but a series of bad coaching hires and lackluster recruiting shows they just didn't do enough to maintain and improve their program since.

— Posted by scousler

I don't think ECU's self-image would permit them to drop down to the FCS. And I understand why ECU plays one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the FBS. Being in C-USA means their overall strength of schedule will always be relatively low. And in an ideal world, they would get more credit than they do for &quot;quality losses&quot; out of conference. But it's not an ideal world, and the reality is, IMO, that if ECU goes 8-4 with quality losses to West Virginia and Virginia Tech, they won't be ranked. And if they were instead 10-2 with wins over Florida International and William and Mary they would be ranked.

They would also be hard to leave out of the bowl picture when only two or three bowl eligible teams are passed over every year with 35 bowl games - a lot more than there were when the Pirates were shut out in the 80's and 90's. When ECU was being passed over, there were only 107 teams in the FBS. Next year, there will be 123. Most of those schools who moved to the bowl division are less attractive bowl teams than ECU.

ECU has one big problem - EC_WHO? Their football program has taken a virtual nosedive in the past ten years and until they resurrect it to the level it was in the '90's, it pretty much limits their options. They really have two logical options - improve their program and win more games against BCS opponents or put less emphasis on football and drop back down to Div II and play in the Southern Conference again. The major BCS conferences don't want them - and the other conferences incur some pretty steep travel comittments, without a really significant bowl opportunity/payout at the end of the season to offset expenses. Going independent might help - but unless they get a guaranteed bowl tie-in, they could end up with nothing even after an 8 win season.

If ECU wants to compete on a national level - then they will have to pay for it and win on a national level. About 3 or 4 9-11 win seasons strung together and more importantly a half dozen or so victories against quality BCS schools should dramatically improve their prospects. I think they should schedule more sanely to achieve that and spend more money on better head coaches and assistant coaches who can get it done. ECU was ESPN's darling in the 90's because they did this - but a series of bad coaching hires and lackluster recruiting shows they just didn't do enough to maintain and improve their program since.

i got a better idea.. the ACC takes in ECU and hopes that makes uconn jump. that would solve it all and we would not have to see that horrible rutgers team join the acc. i have kinda given up on notre dame. they have dug their own grave and their basketball is going to go down with the rest of the ship uss big east.

— Posted by daniel81nc

UConn doesn't need any help jumping. They're begging to get in to the ACC. Notre Dame is the hold up. The league is trying to give the Irish all the time it needs to decide to join for all sports. But that's not going to help ECU one way or the other.

ECU's fan base may be rabid and loyal, but it isn't very big compared to a school like Rutgers, even when Rutgers is horrible (which is most of the time). And expansion is less about fannies in the seats than it is about eyeballs in front of the TV. ND plus Rutgers adds about 6.4 million eyeballs. ND and UConn bring 5.7 million, UConn and Rutgers 3.1 million, and UConn and ECU total 1.9 million. That's assuming all their fans actually have two eyes each. That last combination wouldn't bring enough additional revenue to offset the fact that the pie has to be divided two more ways.

And if ECU wants to tout to networks that it draws well outside its small market area, let's hope they don't look at sites like this one, which draw the interest of only a handful of Pirate fans. Just look at the small number and the infrequency of posts and views in the Pirates Cove Forum.

ECU's not likely to get a satisfying solution to its football conference needs. Maybe they need to think about the needs of their other sports, which are only hurt by being in a coast to coast conference.

i got a better idea.. the ACC takes in ECU and hopes that makes uconn jump. that would solve it all and we would not have to see that horrible rutgers team join the acc. i have kinda given up on notre dame. they have dug their own grave and their basketball is going to go down with the rest of the ship uss big east.

In all likelihood, that would leave ECU almost exactly where they were before all this started. Chances are, UTEP would shift to the Mountain West, where they belong geographically, and somebody like North Texas would be added to C-USA to bring each conference to nine schools. ECU would play four conference opponents from what used to be C-USA East and four from C-USA West each year.

They still won't have AQ status, and there's no reason to assume they will have a better television contract or better bowl tie-ins. Sounds like a lot of running in place to me. Unless the goal from the beginning was to maintain the status quo for the Pirates, we've gained nothing.

With the most recent changes to the landscape, C-USA is considering forming an all-sports conference. The schools to be included are Hawaii, Fresno State, Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTEP, Tulsa, Tulane, Rice, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB, Marshall and ECU.

Are you excited, Pirate fans? If you thought there was a western bias to your league before, just wait. Has anyone heard Terry Holland's views on this alignment?

West Virginia has been a good non-conference game (NC) for the Pirates every few years, but with them now having to travel a lot more for their in-conference schedule, and with their rivalry with Pitt now taking up an NC spot, it may be harder to get them to play ECU.

On the other hand, a lot of ACC teams have scheduled non-conference games against Big East opponents that are now in the ACC, so they'll need to look elsewhere for their fourth NC game. EC could end up looking good to them, too.

As for the MWC &quot;merger&quot;, I don't see that gaining a BCS AQ spot, even if the Big East disappears or loses its status. Whoever has Boise gets lots of points in one of the categories the BCS uses to evaluate potential AQ conferences (highest finish in the final BCS standings). They also get help in the third criterion (# of conference teams in top 25 of the BCS standings). But the most important criterion, and the one that assures the ACC of its spot, is the average strength of all the teams in the conference, top to bottom. That's what's hurt the MWC and the WAC in the past. Each has had a couple of good teams at the top, but they have too many stinkers at the bottom of the league.

Joining forces with C-USA doesn't add any schools that help in the BCS standings criteria, it just adds more teams that pull down the average strength rating for the top teams. So no matter what happens, ECU isn't going to wind up in an AQ conference, so it might as well try for whatever gives them the best geographical and competitive solution.

My first choice is to try to add Cincy, Louisville and South Florida to C-USA East and form a separate 9-team conference. Otherwise, I'd just as soon be independent.

Everything would stay the same as far as team we would play. The CUSA teams would be one division and the MWC would be the other division. Maybe we would play one out of division conference game a season if any. And to balance the divisions UTEP could switch to the other division.

In light of recent developments on the realignment front, do you still think independence is such a wacky idea?

If the reported changes actually happen, ECU will be in a conference that is even weaker and more geographically far-flung than than its current situation. How does the occasional away game in San Diego sound? I hear Fresno is nice this time of year. If the long hoped for invite from the Big East does ever come, it won't be to a BCS conference, and may not have many teams from the east.

I hope Terry Holland is as dissatisfied with the current conference outlook for ECU as I am.

— Posted by Ken D.

I think indy would be better than the MWC-CUSA if we have to travel to Fresno, SD, Hawaii, etc. Im still holding out hope we can get a Big East invite, if Boise, AF, or Navy decline i've read that us and Temple are plan b's. Even if the BE is no longer a BCS conference its better than the mess we're in now.

Im not sure if we will have to travel to the west coast to play MWC teams. Terry Holland didnt like having us travel all the way to Texas to play, so I don't know why he would approve of the MWC-CUSA merger unless he knows we're not going to have to go to the west coast.

In light of recent developments on the realignment front, do you still think independence is such a wacky idea?

If the reported changes actually happen, ECU will be in a conference that is even weaker and more geographically far-flung than than its current situation. How does the occasional away game in San Diego sound? I hear Fresno is nice this time of year. If the long hoped for invite from the Big East does ever come, it won't be to a BCS conference, and may not have many teams from the east.

I hope Terry Holland is as dissatisfied with the current conference outlook for ECU as I am.

Would the ACC ask ECU to join them I don't know. I do know that ECU has lusted for a Big East membership. As things stand now I don't know if ECU will be in the running from any conference as teams keep spinning off to form larger T.V. markets. I think if the ACC reaches out it may be to W.Va.and Louisville I just don't know

&quot;Would ECU still be interested in changing leagues if the choices did not include the ACC?&quot;

I confess that much of my analysis assumes that ECU joining the ACC will never happen. If that is true, then I stick with my belief that ECU has little to gain from switching conferences. In fact, if you read all the posts here, that seems to be the assumption of most of us - especially posters who aren't Pirate fans. So why do we make that assumption? Do we assume the other NC schools would blackball ECU? Or do we assume that the rest of the league wouldn't want a fifth school from North Carolina?

When the league had eight teams, I could understand why the other schools wouldn't want even more dominance by North Carolina schools. Now that we have 12, that wouldn't be as big a fear, especially if it is part of further expansion. Five schools out of sixteen is a lot more acceptable than five out of nine.

I can actually envision the possibility of ECU coming in, along with Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers, joining Maryland, Virginia, Va Tech and BC in a northern division. That would restore the annual round robin among UNC, State, Duke and Wake who would all be in the southern division.

Some might not like such an unwieldy conference for basketball, but who says you have to act as a single conference for basketball or non-revenue sports? I don't think the NCAA would have a problem with treating the north and south divisions as separate conferences for basketball. Each of their champions would be worthy of an automatic tourney invite. That would allow you to have two separate 8-team tournaments in the format that was so exciting in the ACC for years.

The divisions could agree to act as a single conference for revenue splitting/sharing purposes even if it acts as two conferences for other purposes. Never say never, especially when conferences are changing the rules every day.

It seems to me that, with the exception of the ACC, there are no conferences in which ECU's travel considerations would improve significantly. There are only a few non-ACC schools in the FBS less than eight hours from Greenville by car. So no matter what conference ECU is in, they'll be flying to most away games. And if you're flying, 500 miles or 1000 miles doesn't make much difference.

So, if travel isn't the issue, and rivalries aren't the issue, the only issues left are money and bowl affiliations. I don't believe more money will make ECU a better football program. I also don't believe that more money will find its way to the non-revenue sports. I think whatever additional revenues the Pirates would get will be used up by the football program in an escalating facilities arms race.

So, what does ECU hope to achieve by changing its conference affiliation? Is the goal just to be able to say that you play in a conference that has an automatic qualifier in the BCS (just like UNC and State)? What if the BCS dissolves, except for the mechanism for picking two teams to play in a &quot;championship&quot; game? Or if a tournament replaces even that? Would ECU still be interested in changing leagues if the choices did not include the ACC?

If there were no BCS conferences, what would ECU's goal be for its sports teams? And what would be the best way to achieve those goals?

ECU was <.500 last year and 5-3 in a weak Conference Who-SA!! And Defense? Horrible defense. They gave up 50+ points in several games and 76 to the fraking Navy for god sakes. They need to concentrate on getting back to a >.500 team and become the conference "dominator" year after year to have a chance at another conference. The only decent teams they play are out of conference and that is a couple times a year. I think you are putting the cart before the horse you silly pirates.

— Posted by bjonsn

Awww so sad whats your problem man ? Is your team on a losing streak or something ? Too bad.

Ken could you pass that over my way I need a hit from whatever you are using. The Big East may not make thur the next realigment, but it may be the best thing for ECU. I don't see ECU getting a call from the SEC. Nice but no

— Posted by davenportj

I didn't say I thought it was likely. I said I thought it was their best, and maybe only, chance. If the choice for the SEC is between Florida State or ECU, ECU has a chance. If the alternative for the SEC is Missouri, as many analysts believe, then I don't think the Pirates have any chance at all. Many have been assuming that SEC divisions would be determined purely by geography - East and West - which means either separate Auburn and Alabama or bring in an eastern school. But there are other alternatives, as the ACC showed with their Atlantic and Coastal divisions that maintained rivalries.

Working all that out might be a reason for delaying action on A&amp;M's interest in admission.

Ken could you pass that over my way I need a hit from whatever you are using. The Big East may not make thur the next realigment, but it may be the best thing for ECU. I don't see ECU getting a call from the SEC. Nice but no

I think it's possible that after the next round of realignment there will be six major conferences and as many as five independents, with almost 80 schools. Those conferences could very well break away from the NCAA and form their own governing body. If that happens, the 41 FBS schools who are left out stand to lose a lot. ECU has to make its move now in an effort to have a chair when the music stops. I think they need to make a full court press with the SEC to come in as an eastern companion to Texas A&amp;M.

South. Miss played one good team (SC) and got pounded last year. They played no one else out of conference(OOC). UCF only beat teams in CUSA. They played one decent team OOC and lost. Houston was 5-7 so I wont even comment on them. Tulsa beat once decent team OOC and was probably the best team in CUSA last year. ECU beat one average team (NCST) last year. They got mauled the rest of the year. I will give you this. You do play a very strong OOC schedule this year. These few games will get ugly for the pirates. CWhoSA is just weak man. It is what it is! The best team in CUSA would finish < 5th place in any other decent conference like the Big East or ACC. Bottom of the pack in the good conferences like SEC or Big 10. Maybe you will get a chance at the Mid American or Sunbelt conference even though those are no where close to NC. You might as well stick with the mighty CONFERENCE WHOSA!!

— Posted by bjonsn

Wow. Spoken with such humility bjonsn (insert sarcasm). CUSA actually sits much higher up than the Mid American and Sunbelt, but you probably already knew that as you only wanted to hurl an insult. CUSA will be much stronger this year. Mr. Case Keenum will be back for Houston, UCF will be strong, USM will be strong, Tulsa will be strong, SMU and ECU will be much stronger this year.

Why would ECU take a step down? Bjonsn, the Sunbelt and Mid American are both smaller and weaker conferences but you just talk out of your head as to who C-USA members play or have played. Who was the last non-AQ to beat Bosie State, Fla. St.,Oklahoma TCU, just the name a few teams that have lost to C-USA members. Please check the facts then talk about another conference.

South. Miss played one good team (SC) and got pounded last year. They played no one else out of conference(OOC). UCF only beat teams in CUSA. They played one decent team OOC and lost. Houston was 5-7 so I wont even comment on them. Tulsa beat once decent team OOC and was probably the best team in CUSA last year. ECU beat one average team (NCST) last year. They got mauled the rest of the year. I will give you this. You do play a very strong OOC schedule this year. These few games will get ugly for the pirates. CWhoSA is just weak man. It is what it is! The best team in CUSA would finish &lt; 5th place in any other decent conference like the Big East or ACC. Bottom of the pack in the good conferences like SEC or Big 10. Maybe you will get a chance at the Mid American or Sunbelt conference even though those are no where close to NC. You might as well stick with the mighty CONFERENCE WHOSA!!

ECU was <.500 last year and 5-3 in a weak Conference Who-SA!! And Defense? Horrible defense. They gave up 50+ points in several games and 76 to the fraking Navy for god sakes. They need to concentrate on getting back to a >.500 team and become the conference "dominator" year after year to have a chance at another conference. The only decent teams they play are out of conference and that is a couple times a year. I think you are putting the cart before the horse you silly pirates.

— Posted by bjonsn

yes, our defense was bad last year, but that was in part due to losing more than half of our defense, getting a new coach, and implementing a new defensive scheme. expect our defense to be much improved this season. also remember before last season, we ruled CUSA with our strong defense. we play decent teams more than just a couple of times a year, we play 4 decent out of conference games every year, and dont count out decent teams in our conference as well, like S. Miss, UCF, Houston, and Tulsa.

ECU was &lt;.500 last year and 5-3 in a weak Conference Who-SA!! And Defense? Horrible defense. They gave up 50+ points in several games and 76 to the fraking Navy for god sakes. They need to concentrate on getting back to a &gt;.500 team and become the conference &quot;dominator&quot; year after year to have a chance at another conference. The only decent teams they play are out of conference and that is a couple times a year. I think you are putting the cart before the horse you silly pirates.

Nope. They should stay in CUSA for now. See what Lebo can do with the Basketball Team. If VCU and Butler can put together a Final 4 team ECU can put together a team that at least makes the Sweet 16 say every 3-4 years. Something will break. You never know, BC should be in the Big East and ECU could end up in the ACC. Stranger things have happened.

me2youAug 5, 2011Pro
Location: Cary, NC
Joined: Nov, 2008
Posts: 166

I just wish people would learn the difference between &quot;YOUR&quot; and &quot;YOU'RE&quot; when commenting on these boards. GO PIRATES!!!

Not worry, in a few years you will see Super Conferences...where there is no Non-BCS schools...the SEC,ACC, and Big East will expand again...because it all comes down to money....only thing that sucks about C-USA is that if you win the conference your stuck going to the Liberty Bowl...I think Bowls should be able to take who they want, once the BCS National Title teams are matched up....and I think the ACC Champ does not deserve an automatic berth in the Orange Bowl..just like the Big East, it's a joke watching the ACC, and Big East Champ get humiliated...

I expect the flap over the Texas Longhorn network's plan to televise high school games in Texas will rekindle interest by A&M and Oklahoma to join the SEC. I also expect ECU to raise their hand, and ask to be included in a 16 team conference. Last year, when all the rumors were flying, there was talk of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas moving as a group to the SEC. With the other three schools seeking to get away from the Longhorns, that could leave an opening for a fourth school, and ECU could expand that league's footprint into NC.

— Posted by Ken D.

WOW! Ken that is a big step but how is that better than C-USA as to the long miles and forming a rivalry with the schools that are left of the BIG 12 you would think they may look to the Big East before coming to ECU as a playmate but one can dream

— Posted by davenportj

In a 16 team conference, you pretty much stay within your division. For ECU, that would mean Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and either Alabama or Auburn. That's a lot more manageable from a travel standpoint than C-USA, and certainly no worse than a Big East schedule would be.

I expect the flap over the Texas Longhorn network's plan to televise high school games in Texas will rekindle interest by A&M and Oklahoma to join the SEC. I also expect ECU to raise their hand, and ask to be included in a 16 team conference. Last year, when all the rumors were flying, there was talk of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas moving as a group to the SEC. With the other three schools seeking to get away from the Longhorns, that could leave an opening for a fourth school, and ECU could expand that league's footprint into NC.

— Posted by Ken D.

I do hope the SEC would move east and pick us up, but I think that they would try to steal a BCS team first from the ACC or Big East. I am thinking Clemson, Va Tech or West Virginia. If they couldn't get them, then I think we could seriously be considered since our school is SEC like in that it is football centric and there is rabid fan support. It would open up the NC market to the SEC. I am sure Terry has paid Mike Slive a visit. He was the old head of CUSA.

I believe that BYU is getting $7 million a year from ESPN with their TV deal. I could be wrong though as it might be for a total of 3 years. If it is the first then that matches what the Big East pays out each year. If we were able to net something like that with ESPN, then I think we would be okay going independent. But I believe to Heelman's point that if we got good enough, teams would decline playing us or make it really expensive. The schedule might not be appealing as a result.

I expect the flap over the Texas Longhorn network's plan to televise high school games in Texas will rekindle interest by A&M and Oklahoma to join the SEC. I also expect ECU to raise their hand, and ask to be included in a 16 team conference. Last year, when all the rumors were flying, there was talk of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas moving as a group to the SEC. With the other three schools seeking to get away from the Longhorns, that could leave an opening for a fourth school, and ECU could expand that league's footprint into NC.

— Posted by Ken D.

WOW! Ken that is a big step but how is that better than C-USA as to the long miles and forming a rivalry with the schools that are left of the BIG 12 you would think they may look to the Big East before coming to ECU as a playmate but one can dream

I expect the flap over the Texas Longhorn network's plan to televise high school games in Texas will rekindle interest by A&amp;M and Oklahoma to join the SEC. I also expect ECU to raise their hand, and ask to be included in a 16 team conference. Last year, when all the rumors were flying, there was talk of Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas moving as a group to the SEC. With the other three schools seeking to get away from the Longhorns, that could leave an opening for a fourth school, and ECU could expand that league's footprint into NC.

No reason to leave C-USA; it's our only option right now. Expect a football only invite to the BE and the other sports to relocate to the A-10 (better geographic fit w/east coast schools and Charlotte) in a couple of years.

One hidden factor with the BE is that their bowl tie-ins are terrible, outside of their BCS game.

ECU needs to take care of business on the field and at the box office this season. We have many opportunities to show the nation that we're worthy of a BCS conference opening. The facility upgrades in the other sports are a big step as well.

Going indy today is not the same as it was when ECU was indy for 20 years....FSU, Miami, USCe, VT, WVU, Southern Miss and a few more where all independent football programs plus conferences did not have 12 members which left more non-conference games to schedule which we filled. There use to be a pre-season Southern Independents ranking just like each conference has a pre-season ranking. The reason we where left out of bowl games is because of bowl tie ins not fans support --- ECU fans travel very well and in large numbers. Today just about every bowl game is a tie-in bowl game even the ones which a team does not really make any money by going. Independent days for football are over...with the next next staduim expansion already announced for 2015 to 58,000 plus I think ECU will be just fine even without the advantage of AUTO status.

YES it is a far flung conference and yes there are bowl games. but to say that the past 30 years was a waste of time. Sorry ECU went independent to grow as an fan of ECU you must have seen the school grow into a FBS member but to say we should have stay with the S.Con. don't make sense ECU would never have had the chance to play the schools they have played win or lose ECU is growing and getting better whether they are playing in C-USA or maybe the Big East or forming new conference or going out independent ECU will try for the next goal and reach it at sometime

I know that NC State and UNC fans want to see ECU go away and play in the FCS with Appalachain State so that ECU will not be a threat to them in any way shape or form when it comes to competition or recruiting.

Too bad, we already fill a 50,000 seat stadium and have beaten just to name a few (with the ACC members in bold):

If the BCS ceases to exist and the antitrust lawsuit goes through and works
then that would be fine with me too but the Pirates will still probably get
into the Big East within the next decade.

As far as having no road games to drive to, our schedule is set up by design so
that our out of conference games are against BCS opponents within driving
distance.

vs South Carolina in Charlotte
vs Navy in Annapolis

It so happens that we have two out of conference games that fall in Greenville
this year (Virginia Tech and North Carolina) and that is fine with our fan base.
If you want to look at everything as glass half empty for ECU then I can't help
you with that. The glass is half full and things are looking better every day
and there is a great deal of excitement for East Carolina on the horizon.
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu128/clubdude_photos/InternetExplorerWallpaper.jpg

— Posted by TerrorOnTheHighSeas

I am as much a fan of ECU as I am of any other North Carolina team. When they play Carolina or State, I'm pulling for the Pirates. I'm also a realist. Your reference to glass half empty or glass half full is apt. Because in FBS football, that's exactly where ECU stands. Right in the middle. ECU fans are rightly proud of their football program. Over the last three decades, the Pirates have won almost half their games (49%) and have enjoyed 13 winning seasons. If they stay in the FBS, whether they get invited to a BCS conference or not, their football past is also their football future. If you're happy with that, then by all means continue with your present course.

And don't get me wrong. It's perfectly OK to be satisfied with that. I would prefer a different course, in which Pirate football could be consistently excellent. It just depends on whether you would prefer to be the underdog, every once in a while bringing down a Goliath, or whether you want to be a program your competitors aspire to be. Don't forget that ECU plays a lot of other sports, and they aren't helped by being in a far flung conference with no natural rivals.

Nice response, bradedward! I think the next 2-3 yrs will only bring more excitement for ECU and their fans. IMO, we are headed in the right direction and have a lot to look forward to - when the BCS blows up, things will only get better! Go Pirates!!

I know that NC State and UNC fans want to see ECU go away and play in the FCS with Appalachain State so that ECU will not be a threat to them in any way shape or form when it comes to competition or recruiting.

Too bad, we already fill a 50,000 seat stadium and have beaten just to name a few (with the ACC members in bold):

If the BCS ceases to exist and the antitrust lawsuit goes through and works
then that would be fine with me too but the Pirates will still probably get
into the Big East within the next decade.

As far as having no road games to drive to, our schedule is set up by design so
that our out of conference games are against BCS opponents within driving
distance.

vs South Carolina in Charlotte
vs Navy in Annapolis

It so happens that we have two out of conference games that fall in Greenville
this year (Virginia Tech and North Carolina) and that is fine with our fan base.

If you want to look at everything as glass half empty for ECU then I can't help
you with that. The glass is half full and things are looking better every day
and there is a great deal of excitement for East Carolina on the horizon.

Being in C-USA has the advantage of having bowl tie-ins set for the football program and having the athletic schedules filled out for ECU each year (not just football - think about basketball and baseball).

The chances are very good that ECU will join the Big East within the next decade.

Bottom line, ECU is not going to "drop down" to anything. The Pirates are going to "move up" to the Big East within the next decade and be a BCS program.

— Posted by TerrorOnTheHighSeas

I'm sure a lot of Pirate fans are convinced that ECU will be in a BCS conference soon. IMO, that is an extremely long shot. I think it's far more likely that the BCS will cease to exist than that ECU will be a part of it.

In the meantime, if they hold out for that, they will continue to face the travel burden I hear so many complaints about. It's not just that their closest conference opponent is over 400 miles away. Half their conference is more than a thousand miles away. Yes, C-USA has bowl tie-ins. But the only time ECU will actually make money from bowls in C-USA is by not getting invited. If they actually go to a bowl, they will spend their entire conference payout on travel expenses.

Is being in C-USA in all sports so prestigious that it's worth having no true conference rivals and no road games close enough to drive to? Does being in C-USA now mean that they have a better chance of being invited to the Big East later than they would if they were in a more geographically suited conference? C-USA was rated the ninth strongest football conference (out of eleven) over the past five years. How prestigious could that be?

Being in C-USA has the advantage of having bowl tie-ins set for the football program and having the athletic schedules filled out for ECU each year (not just football - think about basketball and baseball).

The chances are very good that ECU will join the Big East within the next decade.

Bottom line, ECU is not going to &quot;drop down&quot; to anything. The Pirates are going to &quot;move up&quot; to the Big East within the next decade and be a BCS program.

I guess for me the biggest question is does ECU benefit much from being in a conference if it isn't a BCS conference. If the answer to that question is yes, the next question is what is the best conference for them to be in. Geographically, ECU is going to be on the outer edge of any conference they belong to. They can't help that - Greenville is where it is.

But it seems to me there must be a better geographical alternative than C-USA. Maybe, if ECU could persuade App State to come with them, the Pirates could take the lead to try and form a new conference, taking pieces from C-USA, Sunbelt and MAC. Consider this possible combination:

ECU and Marshall from C-USA. App State from the FCS. Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee from the Sunbelt, and Temple, Ball State, Ohio U. and Miami (O) from the MAC. While that conference has a relatively compact footprint, it includes schools from 7 different states (NC, TN, KY, WV, IN, OH and PA) which could help in negotiating a TV contract. Potentially, a deal could be worked out with the MAC to have a super-conference for football only. Two nine team divisions and a championship game, but no need for inter-division scheduling so each division can play a full 8 game round robin.

I think ECU in the Southern Conference with App State, Western Carolina, Furman, and others makes a lot of sense. They can still play the occasional games against UNC and State but it makes more sense geographically and competitively.

— Posted by dukegrad1988

The biggest problem for ECU if they dropped down to FCS would be scheduling games against State and Carolina. Each of them only gets one FCS game a year. As long as they are still an FBS opponent, they are an attractive scheduling partner. I believe they would be able to schedule an annual home and home series with both if they were independent or still in C-USA.

I think ECU in the Southern Conference with App State, Western Carolina, Furman, and others makes a lot of sense. They can still play the occasional games against UNC and State but it makes more sense geographically and competitively.